Wounded E3 Hobbles Into the Future

The ESA says it's so, though there is still some semblance of a show slated for next year.

The Web was ablaze Monday with talk of E3's demise, which event host the Entertainment Software Association has now confirmed - sort of.

While E3 as we know it is dead, there will still be a skeletal event taking place in July called the E3 Media Festival, the ESA's Doug Lowenstein told the Wall Street Journal this week.

Overcrowding has been a big concern at recent E3s, but it's not something that you can expect from the new event. The E3 Media Festival will be by invitation only, Lowenstein said. He estimated that the event would gather around 5,000 people from the industry, with an emphasis on the media.

The event will also shift from its most recent home, the Los Angeles Convention Centre, to more intimate locales. Lowenstein told the Wall Street Journal, the event would take place in hotels, with toned down exhibitions occupying meeting rooms instead of the cavernous halls we've come to know.

Meanwhile, UK representatives for the three platform holders have already begun showing signs of support. While Nintendo is committed to the new event, according to a Nintendo spokesman who talked to GamesIndustry.biz, Microsoft and Sony's positions are less clear and probably in the hands of their American counterparts.

Lowenstein refused to be drawn into the blame game when goaded by GameSpot, saying that there was no one issue that pushed the event into oblivion.

What's clear from his media assault this week is that there are still a lot of unknowns to this new event, but with less than a year to go now until it hits, Lowenstein, his team at the ESA, the platform holders, and game publishers and developers will need to start working together in a hurry.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games